Notes From Camp: Giants Defensive Coordinator Brings It Back to Little League

Kenny Phillips, left, who is recovering from an injury talks, with teammate Antrel Rolle on the first day of New York Giants training camp in Albany, N.Y.

When the Giants’ new defensive coordinator Perry Fewell was hired, people said his energy would kick things up. He certainly lived up to that billing within the first few minutes of training camp’s first practice.

The first step: Break into position groups — line, linebackers, corners and safeties — and make a circle.

The object: Catch the ball and toss it, from one player to another, in no particular order. Be quick, be aware, be ready and don’t be butterfingers. A drop and you’re out.

John Busing went out first for the safeties, then Michael Greco. (Antrel Rolle actually tossed the ball badly, but rookies like Greco don’t win many arguments at camp.) Then Deon Grant dropped the ball, and finally Rolle was bested by Sha’reff Rashad.

This went on in all the position groups before the four winners met for one final game of “hot football.” Rashad and defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka were the last two left, in the middle of a very loud ring of defensive players.

Kiwanuka tried to fake out the safety with pauses between tosses, the defensive players hooted and hollered and finally Rashad didn’t catch a ball — because Kiwanuka made a bad throw.

Deon Grant got in Kiwanuka’s jaw for some light-hearted trash talk and there were laughs all over the field.

After practice, when asked about Fewell’s drill, even head coach Tom Coughlin grinned. The last time he ran a drill like that?

“Maybe in little league,” he said.

* * *

Safety Kenny Phillips leaned on a knee next to secondary coach David Merritt, some 30 yards behind the defense.

He wore his pads. He shifted his helmet from his hands to his head. If a player could get off a Physically Unable to Perform list mid-practice, there was a sense Phillips would have figured out how do it.

The third-year safety underwent microfracture surgery on his left knee two games into last season. He had a monstrous 16 tackles and two interceptions in those first two games, and he has rehabbed this past year insistent all the while that he’ll return to that form.

“Yesterday,” Phillips said Sunday when asked when he’d be ready to practice.

He doesn’t get to make that decision, of course. Phillips had made returning to training camp a goal, but after flying from his Miami hometown to the Giants’ complex two weeks ago to work out for the team’s trainers, the medical staff decided to bring him along more slowly.

Phillips called the sidelining “tough,” but also said, “They know what’s best for me and I’m pretty sure they’ll get me out there sooner than later.”

Phillips said he’s been cutting and running and doing drills for months and reported that his knee has been under all sorts of tests — save for on-the-field football testing. Even with a new defensive scheme and new defensive coordinator, Phillips vowed to make up any missed on-field time quickly.

But when asked if he had a timetable for his actual return, he paused. For a long time.

“No,” he finally said with a smile. “I kind of have an idea but I’m tired of making predictions so I’m just going to leave it alone.”

* * *

Keith Bullock may be the newest Giant, signed just this week to shore up a woefully-inexperienced middle linebacking corps. But Bullock may also be the most comfortable Giant. At least, here on the SUNY-Albany campus.

The 33-year-old Rockland County native went to Syracuse, a bit further up the New York State Thruway. He said the drive from his Edgewater, N.J., home prompted some nostalgia. But even sharper nostalgia? This very Indian Quad campus. He had a very close friend who went to school here and who he visited multiple times.

“I’ve actually eaten in this cafeteria before and stayed in this dorm,” Bullock said.